Stamps defence backing up their talk

 

Joshua Bell was on the campaign trail.

Friday, he delivered a fire-and-brimstone pre-game sermon worthy of a revivalist preacher addressing his flock at full tempest in a Chautauqua Tent.

By all accounts, the message was delivered with such fervour that even conscientious objectors would’ve been lining up to enlist.

“The speech? Just about football,’’ reported the co-captain modestly, post-game at Investors Group Field. “About individual battles, about living in the moment.

“That’s what this job is about, really: Living in the moment.

“And domination. About being a dominating defence. That’s what we talk about. That’s what we aspire to be.”

Candidate Bell’s oratory (and heaven knows, the man isn’t shy about talking) held the room spellbound.

“Man,’’ whistled linebacker Alex Singleton, “he could do it for a living.

“I know I’d vote for him.”

The inspirational safety wasn’t taking all credit, though.

“(Deron) Mayo helped me. Uh, huh. We talk a lot, share ideas. So if I did make an impression with it, I’ve got to give him his due.”

Friday, three games in, they all got their due.

On a typically warm, humid Manitoba evening it took master and commander Bo Levi Mitchell a full half to find his peerless groove, that Stampeder defence – touched for a collective 70 points in back-to-back dates versus the Ottawa RedBlacks to open its account – locked the entryway, slammed on a deadbolt and then jammed a chair underneath the door handle for good measure.

Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

That a more-than-correctable slender 10-9 halftime deficit wasn’t larger could be put down to their  collective opportunism and orneriness.

Even minus all-star Charleston Hughes and thinning alarmingly at the end position, DeVone Claybrooks’ group posted three sacks, limited the Bombers to 48 yards rushing, picked QB Matt Nichols twice and, over the decisive second half, pitched a Slap-‘Em-Silly shutout.

A return, then, to steel-spined form for a group that led the CFL in virtually every major defensive category a year ago.

“It wasn’t,’’ argued marauding linebacker Maleki Harris, who enjoyed a game – third-down stuff, QB sack, pick-six – to remember, “as if we were playing necessarily bad, exactly. We just didn’t play our calibre of defence. To everyone else it might’ve seemed okay, but not to us.

“We know what this defence is capable of. We know what our standard is.

“So we came in here like: ‘OK, enough is enough. We’ve got to run around, we’ve got to hit people, create turnovers and play Stampeder defence.’

“We did that tonight.”

Co-captain Bell, whose Willie Mays impersonation in centre field of the end zone snuffed a dangerous early Winnipeg drive, cautioned that one night does not a titan make.

“If we keep rolling, be consistent, that’s the key,’’ he emphasized. “In practice on Day One and Day Two, if we can continue to do what we did in that second half tonight.

“That’s what matters.

“If we can roll this into practice on Monday, then Tuesday, I’ll be extremely confident on how we’re going forward.”

 

Providing the offence time to sort itself out proved the decisive stretch in the Stamps’ posting their second W. Because once Bo Levi got rolling …

“Our defence has been getting people on ’em a little bit, even myself, so it was great for them to play so well,’’ lauded head coach Dave Dickenson. “Created a lot of turnovers, tackled well and they’re up against a good group, a group that’s at home and playing fast.

“They led the charge and the offence just kinda ground it out.”

More bad news on a good-news night at the defensive end position. Both Kashawn Fraser and Aston Whiteside were casualties, leaving the cupboard at the bare.

“If you can play D-end, give me a call,’’ joked Dickenson, with brave humour.

“We’ll have to bring some more people in. Hopefully Charleston’s feeling better and J.D. (Ja’Gared Davis) can get healthy so we can get back to the level where we want to be.”

Friday night, despite mounting obstacles, they crept confidently closer to that level the boss spoke of: Their level, a best-in-the-business level.